Shoulder pads are worn by players of contact sports, such as hockey, lacrosse and football, for upper body protection. Typically, shoulder pads comprise front and back members for respectively protecting front and back regions of a player's thorax and left and right shoulder protectors for respectively protecting the player's left and right shoulders.
A fit of a player's shoulder pads can be important to properly protect the player and facilitate movement of the player. However, the shoulders pads may be limited in terms of how well they can fit the player and this may adversely affect protection and/or movement of the player. For example, the shoulder pads' front and back members may be sewn or otherwise permanently joined such that their shoulder arches arching over the player's shoulders and interconnecting the front and back members are fixed. This may cause the shoulder pads to “sit” or lay poorly on the player. For instance, the shoulder pads may “float” on top of the player, i.e., they may not lay down on the player's shoulders between the player's chest and back. Also, the shoulder arches may be padded and their fixed nature may cause their padding to bunch up or not flex properly.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for improvements in shoulder pads, including improvements directed to improving a fit of a player's shoulder pads.